The headline above is directly quoted from an article at foodarazzi.com. Various organizations have used Body Mass Index (BMI) to draw the lines between categories such as Obese, Overweight, Normal, and Underweight. The World Health Organization defines Normal as 18.5 to 25.
Turns out that Asian Americans should aim for a BMI of 23, not 25. The explanation? Asian Americans are “fatter” at a lower BMI than Caucasian Americans. This translates to an increased risk of diabetes and other health problems at lower weights.
So what does this really mean?
Here are my follow up IMs with Ernie:
joz: omg @ your tweet about that thing about asian am bmi
Ernie: i know.
Ernie: it was like being kicked in my very large belly.
God, I love Ernie.
What next?
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5 Comments to ““Asian American? You may be fatter than you think!””
Efren wrote:
Heh, the BMI is actually a really bad indicator of obesity since it only takes into account weight and height, and not really proportions between fat and muscle. Because of this, people who do bodybuilders are technically seen as overweight/obese according to the BMI when actually they have very little fat and are otherwise extremely healthy.
Besides, I have a way larger belly than Ernie. Sheesh.
Posted on 26-Oct-08 at 10:56 pm | Permalink
moye wrote:
Wait, wait wait wait WAIT. So this means my Wii Fit is wrong, too??
Posted on 27-Oct-08 at 9:29 am | Permalink
Jeff wrote:
I don’t like BMI because it says I’m overweight (28 for me, probably because of weight training). The body fat percentage metric say I am acceptable, although I do have some room for improvement.
Posted on 27-Oct-08 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » JAPAN GOING BANANAS OVER OBAMA/PROP 8: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] I need to go on a diet, especially since I realized very recently that I am considered “obese” according to these new standards for yellow people. (Thanks, joz, for ruining the upcoming [...]
Posted on 30-Oct-08 at 2:31 pm | Permalink
“Normal” « foodfoodbodybody wrote:
[...] OMG. Just realized I might not be “normal” after all — turns out that there is an ASIAN BMI SCALE that is lower than the “regular” scale. Yeah, even with a name like Foodie McBody, [...]
Posted on 04-May-09 at 7:50 am | Permalink
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